The Horizon of Memory

"The sea is a peacemaker," he comments on the coastal landscape of Barranco that he enjoys from the balcony of his apartment — similar, indeed, to that of the privileged plot of land that Miraflores mayor Manuel Masías assigned for the construction of the Museum of Memory. In the Saturday afternoon haze, the Morro Solar, Isla San Lorenzo, and the cliff of the aforementioned plot come into view. As in a novel, the violence of the last two centuries is woven across the horizon. After a good stretch of the interview had passed, the pupils of Mario Vargas Llosa seem to find a focal point, and the ideas that had been unraveling bit by bit begin to connect, to be almost typewritten, with astonishing ease. All of them serve to support the great premise: if the project is successful, the Museum of Memory will help foster a culture of democracy in a country bereft of it. Published on December 23, 2009.